- The Central Bank of Nigeria has disqualified 41.65 million shares worth N822.60 million in the recently concluded Access Holdings Plc’s Rights Issue
- The disqualified shares are linked to five applicants
- Access Holdings exceeded the minimum capital requirement for its licence category
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disqualified 41.65 million shares worth N822.60 million in Access Holdings Plc’s recently concluded Rights Issue.
The CBN announced the disqualification of the shares in a corporate notice filed on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Wednesday, December 25.
The apex bank stated that the disqualified shares, linked to five applicants, were disqualified for reasons stated in the Capital Verification Report.
It said, “41,650,447 shares from five applicants among the 24,100 acceptances, valued at N822,596,328.25 were disqualified by the Central Bank of Nigeria for reasons stated in the Capital Verification Report.
“Therefore, 18,755,158,972 shares valued at N370.41 billion were accepted having been confirmed as valid and verified by the CBN.”
Access Holdings raised N370 billion to exceed recapitalisation benchmark
Access Holdings raised N370 billion in its concluded Rights Issue to exceed the CBN’s N500 billion recapitalisation threshold for its licence category.
Out of the 24,181 applications received for 18.82 billion shares valued at N371.77 billion, 18.76 billion shares worth N370.41 billion were verified as valid and accepted by the CBN. This pushed the bank’s minimum capital base to N600 billion.
The bank’s allotment notice read, “The shares allotted regarding the rights issue represent 100 per cent of the shares on offer. The rights issue, which offered 17.77 billion shares at N19.75 per share, was oversubscribed by 5.76 per cent.”
Details of the company’s Rights Issuance
A breakdown of Access Holdings’ Rights Issuance showed that 21,141 shareholders fully accepted their provisional allotments, totalling 5.59 billion shares worth N110.45 billion.
The company added that 10,889 shareholders applied for an extra 10.63 billion shares, while 9.64 billion rights were fully renounced.
It stated that 2,324 shareholders partially accepted their provisional allotments, which amounted to 395.65 million shares worth N7.81 billion. Additionally, 635 subscribers purchased 2.14 billion shares valued at N42.26 billion through traded rights on the Nigerian Exchange.
The company also stated that 68.43 million shares worth N1.35 billion were invalidated due to non-compliance with the terms of the offer or disqualification by the CBN.
On July 8, 2024, Access Holdings opened its Rights Issue of 17,772,612,811 Ordinary Shares of 50 Kobo each at N19.75 per share, based on one new ordinary share for every two Ordinary Shares held as of June 7, 2024. The Rights Issuance, valued at N351 billion, closed on August 23, 2024.
Access Bank fully acquires Standard Chartered’s Angola, Sierra Leone subsidiaries
Meanwhile, TheRadar reported that Access Bank, the main subsidiary of Access Holdings Plc, completed the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank Angola S.A. and Standard Chartered Bank (Sierra Leone) Limited.
The announcement of the acquisition was published on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) disclosure page and signed by the company secretary, Sunday Ekwochi, on Wednesday, November 27.
